ommodities among Themselve onsider the exemplary case of father- guarantee the transmission of discourse, its social structures. These relations, which are in effect everywhere, cannot be eradicated through the abolition of the family or of monogamous reproduction Commodities among Themselves openly display the pederastic love in which they are grounded They cannot be put into practice. at all,.except-in-Janguage The exchanges upon which patriarchal societies are based without provoking a general crisis, without bringing one sort take place exclusively among men. Women, signs,com- svI to an end modities, and currency always pass from nan to another; if The other"homosexual relations, masculine ones, are just it were otherwise, we are told, the social order would fall back as subversive, so they too are forbidden. Because they openly rely endogamous ties that would interpret the law according to which society operates, they thi eaten in upon incestuous and cxcIusiv paralyze all commerce. Thus the labor force and its products fact to shift the horizon of that law. Besides, they challenge the including those of mother earth, are the object of transactions nature, status, and"exogamic"necessity of the product of ex- ong men and men alone. This means that the very possibility hange. By short-circuiting the mechanisms of commerce of a sociocultural order requires homosexuality as its organizing prin- might they also expose what is really at stake? Furthermore, ciple. Heterosexuality is nothing but the assignment of eco- they might lower the sublime value of the standard, the yard- mic roles: there are producer subjects and agents of exchange stick. Once the penis itself becomes merely a means to pleasure, (male) on the one hand, productive earth and commodities pleasure among men, the phallus. loses. itspower. Sexual pleasure, (female)on the other we are told, is best left to those creatures who are ill-suited for 6 Culture, at least in its patriarchal form, thus effectively pro- Ibits any return to red blood, including that of the sexual arena In consequence, the ruling power is pretense, or sham, which still fails Exchanges and relationships, always am hus be both to recognize its-own-endogamies. For in this culture the only sex, ed, and forbidden by law. The ong men,would a price to pay V the only sexes, are those needed to keep relationships among of exchange: male subjects have to give up nen running smoothly the possibility of serving as commodities themselves i Why is masculine homosexuality considered exceptional, then, when in fact the economy as a whole is based upon it? occasion for mediation,transaction, transition, transference Why are homosexuals ostracized, when society postulates ho- between man and his fellow man, indeed between. man, and mosexuality? Unless it is because the"incest"involved in home himself. sexuality has to remain in the realm of pretense his text was originally published as""Des marchandises entre elles Considering that the peculiar status of what is called hetero- Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron(New York, 1981), Pp. 107-110. sexuality has managed, and is still managing, to escape notice